It’s a question almost as old as time itself–is it que or queue? Or maybe it’s cue. The good news is that all three options are real words. The bad news is that they’re not interchangeable and you need to know the difference. In fact, one of them only works if you’re speaking Spanish.
If you’re looking to use a queue management system in your stores, the first thing to know is whether you’re spelling queue correctly. You don’t want to fall at the first hurdle because of a lousy misspelling. So, without further ado, let’s clear a few things up.
Que vs Queue
Whether you should use the spelling queue or que ultimately depends on the context. For instance, if you’re trying to talk about people waiting in line, the word is queue. (“Louise waited in a virtual queue to speak to a fashion expert”).
The word queue originates from the Old French word cue, coe or queue, translating as “tail”. It’s easy to see how we reached the phrase “queueing in line” then, although “queueing in tail” would admittedly have been more fun.
Qué, however, is the Spanish word for “what”. Que is also an abbreviation for Quebec. That said, these likely aren’t the words you’re looking for unless you’re trying to showcase your world knowledge. Que is a homophone, meaning that it’s a word that sounds like many other words, even though the spelling is different.
